Sustainability

Responsible business

Sustainability remains a priority for the Group and is embedded within our core strategic actionable components. We have always prioritised our people and their safety, while providing our customers with a reliable alternative to ownership, supporting the communities we serve across our store network, limiting the environmental impact of our operations and ensuring a strong governance framework.  We are committed to delivering long-term sustainable success of the Group for the benefit of all our stakeholders.  Our latest strategic plan, Sunbelt 4.0, solidifies the focus on sustainability across the Group. 

Sustainability under Sunbelt 4.0 is about advancing our customer centric approach, while strengthening our operational focus targeted to Sunbelt’s key impacts and opportunities.  The best way to engage our people on the value of sustainability is by connecting it to the organisational principle of customer obsession.  We are strengthening our sustainability focus across four core areas:

• operations: when it comes to our direct operational impacts, we continue to focus on opportunities to reduce our direct carbon footprint (Scope 1 and 2) and our management of waste and water;
• customers: rental is inherently a sustainable business model, but through providing the linkage between customers and original equipment manufacturers (’OEMs’), we can drive sustainable practices through the value chain. Specifically, by leveraging our platform, expert teams and unmatched partnerships with OEMs, we help to accelerate the transition to lower carbon solutions;
• people: health and safety remains our key priority, and we are committed to continually improving our safety performance, both in how we operate and the equipment and services we provide our customers. Our people strategy under Sunbelt 4.0 is centred around attracting, developing and retaining our team members while enhancing our inclusive culture; and
• communities: we strive to drive greater impact by investing more in our community and finding new ways to connect with our customers on shared values. Our community investment areas of focus include supporting our veterans, youth support and empowerment, improving health and well-being and supporting communities to recover and rebuild after disasters. 

Material topics 

As part of our risk management process, we assess regularly the most material matters to the Group, including those related to sustainability, and assess their potential impact on our business and the generation of long-term value.  

We have prioritised our material topics based on their potential impact on our business operations and importance to our stakeholders, structuring our considerations around our four key sustainability areas: operations; customers; people; and communities.  

Key: Linkage to sustainability strategy core areas:
	Operations		Customers
	Our people		Communities

Current material topics

How we monitor our work

A robust approach to corporate governance is the foundation for delivering our strategy and ensuring our growth is achieved in a way that is both responsible and sustainable.  Strong leadership, company culture, risk management and transparency are all elements that are essential to our business performance and its sustainability.  We have identified and monitor several metrics to evaluate and measure our performance.  Included in this report are metrics on health and safety incident rates, employee engagement, staff turnover and GHG intensity.

The Group’s Board of directors is responsible for monitoring the progress we make against our strategic sustainability objectives and the targets we have set.  The Board is assisted in this function by the Group Risk Committee. 

Further details are provided within our Annual Report